The Best Celebrity Mug Shots
If you’re looking for the best famous celebrity mug shots, you’ve come to the right place. Celebrity mug shots capture famous actors, actresses, musicians, and politicians when they are at their worst. Many movie stars manage to get arrested in the midst of alcohol or drug abuse binges or altercations with their spouse or significant other.
As a result, they take some pretty embarrassing, surprising, and yet hilarious, mugshots, and arrest photos. For your viewing pleasure, we collected some of the more notorious and famous celebrity mug shots below. In many cases, celebrities were detained and/or incarcerated multiple times.
New celebrity mug shots are being added all the time, so be sure to check back for updates. If it’s one thing celebs know, it is how to get arrested and how to take a great photo. As always, if you have any questions about our list of celebrity mug shots, please leave a comment below. Also, if you’d like to learn more, please continue reading.
Charlie Sheen was busted by the cops in Aspen, Colorado in December of 2009. He was charged with domestic violence.
Irv Gotti was taken into custody in Cali back in August 2003. He was charged with possessing a controlled substance.
Actor Nick Nolte was sent to the slammer by the CHP in 2012 for DUI.
Porsha Williams turned herself in, in glamorous fashion, to the Fulton County Sheriff’s department. She was booked and released on a simple battery misdemeanor charge.
Lauryn Hill spent three months in prison and three months in home confinement for not paying taxes on approximately $1 million of her earnings.
In 1996, Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Jones) was taken in by the New Jersey police department for possession of marijuana.
Arizona 2008, rapper Lil’ Wayne (Dwayne Carter) was arrested for felony drug possession. This was one of many run-ins he had with the law.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. was arrested several times. In this particular photo, taken in 1999, Downey was serving time at the California Department of Corrections on drug charges.
July, 202: R. Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography.
On 16 September 2010, Russell Brand was arrested on suspected battery charges after he allegedly attacked a paparazzo.
Steven Tyler
New York, 1995 – Tupac Shakur was convicted of felony sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 months in prison.
In 1996 and 1997, actor Wesley Snipes was detained and charged with fraudulently claiming tax refunds of nearly $12 million in income taxes. Also, he was charged with failing to file tax returns from 1999 through 2004.
Willie Nelson was busted a number of times. In this photo, he was taken in for possession of marijuana in 2010 after U.S. Border Patrol agents pulled over his tour bus in Sierra, Texas. Willie was not paying attention when they took his picture.
In 2003, country singer Wynonna Judd was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee in November 2003 for drunk driving.
Actor Woody Harrelson was nailed for Disturbing the Peace by Columbus, Ohio police in 1982. Mr. Harrelson was found dancing in the street and tried to run away from the cops. He was fined for the incident.
In 2006, Yanni was charged with domestic abuse in Palm Beach, Florida.
One of Young Jeezy’s many booking photographs. In this photo, he was arrested for several charges including false imprisonment, battery, and making terroristic threats during a fight with his son.
In North Carolina in 2001, Vince Vaughn was arrested and charged with fighting in public for his part in a bar brawl.
What is a Mugshot?
A mugshot, also commonly spelled as two words “mug shot”, arrest photo, or police booking photograph, is a photographic portrait image taken by the police after an individual is arrested by law enforcement. The purpose of taking a mug shot is to allow law enforcement personnel to have a photographic identification record of the arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and police investigators.
The Mugshot Booking and Photograph Process
Most mugshot photos consist of two parts, which include a front-view photo of the individual and a side-view photo of the individual (also called a profile shot). The area captured is usually limited to the upper part of the torso and the face/head. Only one person is photographed at a time, regardless of how many people were arrested in the incident. There are never group photos.
Where did the term originate?
If you’re wondering where the term originated, the term mug shot is originally derived from the word “mug”, which is an English slang term for a human face. The use of the word dates all the way back to the 18th century. The word mug was very popular in mafia-style movies, where unattractive people were often referred to as having an “ugly mug”.
Prior to modern advancements in computer technology and image processing, an accused person was required to physically hold a card in front of them that showed their name, the current date, and other information relative to the individual and/or the precinct in which they were arrested. Digital photography is now used in the mugshot and booking process, and the accused individual does not have to hold the card while the actual photo is taken. The additional information is added to the photos digitally.
After the individual’s picture is taken by the law enforcement officer or processing clerk, the digital identification photograph is then linked to a law enforcement database that contains the identifying information pertinent to the individual and the arrest. This allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies nationwide to quickly pull up a photo of the individual whenever needed.
Federal Records
Federal booking photographs and mug shots are entered into the public domain in the United States and can be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Open public access is constantly being debated in the courts as to whether the photos are considered to be “embarrassing and humiliating information”. Some believe that the photos automatically associate the individual with “guilt and criminality.
In certain special cases, the mugshot of the arrested individual is sealed along with the arrest record. Learn how to Search Police Records.
Where to find mug shots for regular citizens?
If you want to find police booking photographs for public citizens, there are several options. First, you can visit an aggregation site that aggregates the photos from multiple sources and makes them available either via a site search engine or via a navigation directory, usually organized by state. This approach allows the convenience of visiting a single site to conduct your search.
However, the downside is that since these sites are not the original source of the images, they may not always be accurate and up to date. Second, you can go directly to the source. To do this, you’ll need to determine who publishes the mugs in the particular area you need to search. For example, in some states, the Department of Corrections handles the publication. In other states, the State Police Bureau offers a searchable database online.
Importantly, keep in mind that not all states make the information online, so it is not possible to find everyone who has been incarcerated. In addition, at many of these search sites, you’ll also be able to look up inmates who have been processed through the Department of Corrections.
Also, it is important to note that just because a person has their mugshot online does not mean they are guilty.
